Co-writing, Collaboration, and Working together

[Pikachu]

Co-writing is a lot like brainstorming with a buddy. You sit down and chat about your awesome ideas. Then, if you both have enough passion for the project, you hash it out together and make something of it.

Being a writer, I find that my artist has a lot of valuable insight in the direction of a story. Sometimes it's pacing, and other times it's character development. Sometimes my artist will get a totally random idea that works so well that I just have to put it into the story. This is all part of the collaboration of writing a script and doing a comic, but the bottom line is, a writer needs to have an open mind and be flexible.

No matter how good your idea may be, it can always be better. Whether it is the editing, or the dialogue, or even the plot itself, a good story can always be better with more thought behind it. That's why instead of going mainstream I have chosen to stay in independant comics. You can take your time, make the stories you want to tell, and not have the preasure of a deadline looming so heavy that you're force to compromise quality for quantity.

When I show my artist a script, he sometimes tells me he can get the thumb nails back to me in a couple days. Other times I write so much stuff in that he says it will be a few weeks. However, I don't put any preasure on him, because I spent 2 years writing a 6 issue series. I spent the extra time, because when I actually sat down and thought about it, that's what I thought was missing most from mainstream comics. Sure the commitment is there, the desire to make some art and tell stories, but where the top publishers lack is in the pre-production. They rush themselves to get stuff made, make some money, and keep their jobs. Time is money, as they say. That's the buisness for you. Sometimes they luck out and hit a hot streak, but mostly, the majority of comics out today consist of re-hashed crap. But hey, it sells well, so who am I to judge?

Maybe in ten years time, I'll actually get my book published (Laughs). But when the time comes, I'll know that spending a little more time and effort on it, making it the best I can, will pay off in the long run.

Also realizing that I couldn't have done it alone is a big factor. I'm extremely thankful that my artist has stuck by me and continued to share an excitement about the project. God only knows he's not getting paid for his comitment, but it goes to show that if you have something worth telling, others will recognize it too. I'm sure after publishing the darn thing, we'll rake in our dues (we can't get any more broke than we already are), but I have to hand it to my artist for sticking by my side, and agreeing to work exclusively on the project with me. When the time comes to sell our art, it's great knowing that after all the blood, sweat, and tears I will have someone as proud as the creation as I am. Working together in collaboration has been a learning experience, and a wonderful ride, it will be neat to see how the finished product will look. And for that matter, I'm entirely curious to see how it will be recieved.

Until then, what are some of your peeps thoughts on the collaborative process?

Pika!

[DannoE]

Until then, what are some of your peeps thoughts on the collaborative process?

It's tough. When guys ask me if I want to co-write, I typically tell them that I'd rather that they just take their best shot - at a story plan or outline - so that I can then go back through and look at that plan structurally. To me, that's more like editing. But when I WRITE, it's hard for me to let others play with my stuff.

[chairmanblue]

that said... i don't want to disagree with everything you said... definitely collaboration is cool... i think... i haven't really done any yet. i'm still in lonely writer in the back room mode. but i will say, i do not agree with your view that more time necessarily makes for better comics. for every tomine and clowes that squeeze out one issue a year, maybe, you've got the grant morrison, alan moore, etc. turning around classics to deadline. i feel like mentioning the "new" guns and roses album, chinese democracy, that axel has been "working on" for like ten years. if anyone thinks it's going to be better than their previous albums, squeezed out on tight deadlines, i'd like to hear their argument. i just don't think procrastination makes things better. hit while the iron is hot...

just my thoughts

[Pikachu]

Originally posted by Chairmanblue
i do not agree with your view that more time necessarily makes for better comics. for every tomine and clowes that squeeze out one issue a year, maybe, you've got the grant morrison, alan moore, etc. turning around classics to deadline.

I didn't mean to generalize, and I agree, not only Morrison, and Moore, but you have regular word crunchers like Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis hitting up the mainstream universes as well. All of these guys are rewritting the rules of American comics everytime they put out an amazing piece of work and stories.

I guess my beef comes when they sacrafice quality stories for company policy. You can't use this or that character because it has to be on the next lunch box. Granted, sometimes peremeters can focus a work, just as well as hinder it.

Yet in terms of quality... my comment was direct more or less at the entire gamut of the stories in contemporary comics. You have your handful of mainstream pros. pumping out quality stories like machines, but take them away and focus on the bulk of storytelling going on in comics... and you'll find that the quality rapidly breaks down. YOu still have your rare gems, and unique finds, but for the whole... it's not pretty. Mediocre stories with badly written dialogue and worse plot scripting lurks everywhere. I don't like to bad mouth anyone, but an example would be "X4" a recent X-Men/Fantasic Four crossover. Probably the worst written piece of 2005. But I can't blame the writer or artist, why? Because the darn book had fiver, that's right, FIVE editors. Makes you wonder what the real goal was? Tell a good story, or sell a product?

This is the problem I see arising more often than not. And even though that 10% of great stories being told are told by a slim group of highly skilled professionals, all those others out there pushing out crap should be ashamed of themselves.

I'm not saying take forever to tell a story, but put a little more effort into it, think it through, and maybe like Frank Miller or Mike Mingola, you'll create something worth reading. Something that separates you from them.

Pika!

[r nelson]

It's tough. When guys ask me if I want to co-write, I typically tell them that I'd rather that they just take their best shot - at a story plan or outline - so that I can then go back through and look at that plan structurally. To me, that's more like editing. But when I WRITE, it's hard for me to let others play with my stuff.

You never learned to share, did you? I'm quite the opposite. I like writing with others -- "brainstorming," if you will. I find that as the story comes along, the excitement builds around it, and better ideas come from that exchange.

Of course it helps that I've got a bunch of friends with great ideas who don't know a lick about story structure, so they toss in a ideas and help move the plot and I get to do the writing. I guess that's me playing with their toys and not the other way around, though...

[DannoE]

I'm trying to learn. Lately when artist ask me to help them brainstorm and write, I ask for a list of stuff they want their hero to do during the story. Then I work to build an outline from there. But all of that stuff is still in its early infancy, so I have no idea whether or not that approach is working.

[Vendetta]

I really, really enjoy brainstorming with someone that I get along with. I find that our collective work is so much more gratifying.

[xadrian]

Brainstorming is great, but I can't see collaboratively writing for more than 1 or 2 fun little side projects. Eventually ego, necessity and practicality have to take over. It's just faster and cleaner to write by your self.

Yes, you lose a bit of creativity not having more than one brain working on it, but you also don't have that brain to gum up the story. No matter how close you are to your partner, there will always be the desire to pull the story your way.

But hey, if you don't care that your books come out once every 2 or 3 months, that's your deal.

[web crawler]

I somewhat agree with Xadrian about collaboration between co-writers because it is often more difficult for two or more people to entirely be on the same wave length even with the most noblest intents of trying to set egos aside. Nevertheless, co-writing doesn't need to be as slow of a process that people are making it out to be. There is a way where writers could collaborate together and avoid the pitfalls of slowing the writing process down too much and avoid entirely pushing their own agendas.

One suggestion which I think that might help is to alternate between projects where one person who initiates the storyline/idea of the project has creative control over it while taking under advice suggestions from his or her co-writers. I guess this would be more akin to what is commonly done with t.v. where there are staff writers who hash out the basic plot lines but let two or more members do the actual writing. Hence, when the first set of members do the writing for one episode another set (different) pair/group write for the next one.

The difficulty with co-writing is trying to find the balance in all of the contributed material while amalgamating it all together. This becomes the time consuming part and yes it would be more beneficial to write on your own. But, I think that this draw back is offsetted by the fact that the more ideas that are available, the greater the potential for richer work, providing that the people involved with the creative process can continue to see the emerging ideas without throwing them out too prematurely. This would require the team of writers to take the numerous possibilities and trying to develop them further to fully see whether or not it would be profitable to use them. While this will take a little extra time, I believe that a greater depth of characterization and plotting will surface.

I honestly believe that if co-writers work diligently and have the will to keep plugging away on a project it can be done within a sufficient amount of time, although it may not be as quick as a very disciplined and motivated writer who works by him or herself. But I believe that more and more we are seeing co-written work being done, most notably in Hollywood. And there have been some really good co-written works (the first that comes to my mind is Good Will Hunting). It is at this point that I will leave it with you whether co-writing is really as detrimental as what some may think.

[web crawler]

Sorry everyone, I was having difficulties posting my first response and didn't realize that it actually went through. Previously in this space there was a duplicate of the above response but I decided to get rid of it because it was just sitting there needlessly. I don't know if doing this is any better, but I needed to extend my sincerest apologies to everyone!